The Hollywood Liberal

       At Least 1 Republican To Vote Against Alito But He’s in Thanks To Democrats.

By H.L.
As we get ready for the final vote on Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court, AP is reporting that Republican Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island will vote against confirmation on Alito. This is significant in that even though there are still not enough votes to filibuster Alito, thanks to some of our weak Democratic Senators, it marks the first time that a Republican has announced that he will go against Bush on something this big. Up until now The Republicans were marching in lockstep with Bush’s wishes on Alito, up to this point it was assumed in the media that all 55 GOP Senators would go along with Bush and confirm Alito.
Now if Chaffee, could get about 6 or 7 other Republican Senators who actually care about The U.S. Constitution, and not pure politics, and greed, we might be somewhere in getting Alito’s nomination blocked.
Thanks to Democratic Senators like Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and Robert Byrd of West Virginia, who have already said that they will vote for Alito there is virtually no chance that there would be enough votes to stop Alito from becoming Sandra Day O’Connor’s replacement on the high court.
John Kerry has spent the weekend calling other Democrats in an effort to get enough votes to lead a filibuster against Alito, but other Senators in Kerry’s party have indicated that they will not support a filibuster, even though they plan to vote no on Alito. AP is also reporting that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has indicated that he will go along with the attempted filibuster by voting no to end debate, switching from his previous stance of voting no on confirmation, but refusing to support the filibuster. 41 votes are needed in the Senate to end debate and send the nominee to a vote. With 44 Democratic Senators, plus independent Jim Jeffords of Vermont who plans to vote against Alito, there is a margin of 4 Senators who could go against the filibuster and still leave enough votes available to send the nomination into exile. Chafee has indicated that although he will vote no on Alito, he will not support a filibuster.
With no votes expected from Byrd, Tim Nelson, of South Dakota, and now Kent Conrad of North Dakota, who said he is “leaning in favor of voting for (Alito's confirmation)” the filibuster is dead in the water, and Alito has the votes needed for confirmation.
Once again the Democrats have proven that their only allegiance is to Bush, and the status quo, if they could have all stuck together like the Republicans always do. Alito would be out, but with Democrats sticking by the sides of their corporate masters, the people, whom the Dems are supposed to represent are out in the cold once again. Alito will go along with the corpo-facsists on every vote just like he always had, and things will only get worse for middle class and poor people in America. Let’s once again thank the Democrats. The best friends Republicans ever had

posted by hcpgr @ 8:57 AM Permalink